Zenta Rocks Labor Temple

What do you do nowadays, when you get that urge to get down, to really boogie, shake your ass and let off some steam? There's hardly any place where you can dance, get high and get loose anymore.

Well, the First Zenta Church of Ann Arbor has stepped to the fore. This Monday (June 3) and then every other Sunday thereafter the Church of Zenta will be sponsoring a regular series of dances to be held at the Labor Temple, commonly known as Carpenter Hall, 2100 W. Michigan Avenue (between Ypsi and Ann Arbor).The first two dances will feature the up and coming Michigan rock and roll units known as the Rockets and Zoom. A $3 donation at the door will get you inside for all the music you want and all the beer you can drink.

Since the People's Ballroom burned down in December of '72, Ann Arbor's boogie joints have steadily dwindled to zero. There used to be dancing at the Odyssey Bar, the Primo Showbar, the People's Ballroom and from time to time at the Michigan Union Ballroom. But the dance bars have closed for now, the Ballroom burned and the University has clamped down on community use of its facilities for rock and roll religious freekouts.

Since the number of places to hear music and dance has diminished, the number of jobs that our local bands get has also diminished, making basic survival for the groups more pressing than ever. The bi-weekly Zenta services will help fill the gap.

The Zenta dances are late night affairs starting at 8:30 p.m. and going on until 1:30 in the morning. With the passage of Ann Arbor's and Ypsi's $5 weed laws we can now carry on these services with ceremonies in the open, without fear of arrest or harassment.

The last few of these dances have been relative successes. The $3 donation contributed at the door goes first to pay for the hall, beer and other expenses, then to provide the bands with a decent amount of money for their work. What's left over (which isn't much, previous dances only netted $100, while others lost more than that) will go to the First Zenta Church, a non-profit incorporated Michigan ecclesiastical corporation made up of community activists and bands living at the complex of houses at 1510, 1520, and 1522 Hill St. People at those properties, who work with bands, the SUN, and the nonprofit Rainbow Multi-Media, are attempting to gain control of the houses by purchasing them with long-range monthly payments, instead of throwing money away on rent. The Church will use the money to help meet the outrageous city property taxes and to do maintenance work on the buildings.

The dances are religious rites of the Zenta religion. Zenta is the religion to end all religions. The faithful partake in the sacrament, weed, participate in group-grope ritual dances, share in the cosmic karma of the community and join in the collective energy discharge into the universe. These rites are a long-standing Ann Arbor cultural tradition, now, Zenta is bringing them to us on a regular basis. See you there, and remember, there's no hope without dope.